2019 Diamond Head field revealed

A day out from the 10th edition of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, the 11th DHC field was revealed.

Host Hawaii will be joined by Ball State (Mid-American), Boise State (Mountain West), Georgia Tech (Atlantic Coast), Houston (American Athletic), Portland (West Coast), UTEP (Conference USA) and Washington (Pac-12).

Boise State (2013) and UTEP (2011) are returning participants. The Broncos (who now boast former UH assistant Chris Acker as an assistant coach) defeated the Rainbow Warriors 62-61 in the 2013 first round.

Right now, it looks like Houston and Washington are really solid gets for this tournament. Portland has a couple local ties in ‘Iolani graduate Hugh Hogland (who just played UH here to open 2018-19) and former island resident Marcus Shaver Jr.

Excited to officially announce the 2019 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic team field! #LeiUp #CBB pic.twitter.com/6UuubgPONY

— #LeiUp (@DiamondHeadClsc) December 21, 2018

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Here’s the records and KenPom ratings for those teams (and the DHC field for this weekend for good measure) as of Friday. UH opens against UNLV at noon on ESPNU on Saturday.

2018 DHC
TCU (8-1), 28
Colorado (8-1), 62
Rhode Island (5-3), 94
UNLV (5-4), 133
Indiana State (6-3), 140
Bucknell (4-5), 180
Hawaii (6-4), 202
Charlotte (3-5), 305

2019 DHC
Houston (11-0), 34
Washington (7-4), 54
Georgia Tech (6-4), 82
Ball State (8-4), 91
Boise State (4-7), 137
Hawaii (6-4), 202
Portland (6-7), 289
UTEP (4-5), 228

It’s worth noting that the usual dates (Dec. 22, 23 and 25) for the tournament were not included in the official release — “dates and times will be announced at a later date,” it states. There’s been some chatter about the DHC moving to earlier in the season, so we’ll see if that plays out that way.